UT System brainstorms on student debt

Updated 10:32 pm, Wednesday, December 5, 2012

College students who think they know it all could soon be put to the test.

The University of Texas System is tackling student debt concerns with a new report pinpointing some causes and solutions to students leaving school with tens of thousands in loans.

Among dozens of recommendations in the report, one is creating a pathway for students to earn credit for mastering the material rather than for class time.

The approach, called competency-based learning, received a push from Gov. Rick Perry earlier this fall when he praised a program that allows veterans to earn credit for knowledge gained through their military training and experience.

Scott Kelley, the UT System's executive vice chancellor for business affairs, will present the new report, “College ‘Credit': Reducing Unmanageable Student Debt and Maximizing Return on Education,” to UT System regents in Austin today.

During the meeting, UT System Chancellor Francisco Cigarroa also will discuss a “bold new plan for advancing excellence in education and health in South Texas,” according to a news release.

Kelley said he and other members of UT's student debt reduction taskforce have been parsing through data and possible remedies to the complicated issue since last spring.

Forty-nine percent of University of Texas at Austin students who earned their degrees in 2011 graduated with debt. On average, they owed $25,227 after graduation, according to the Project on Student Debt.

The average debt at both schools was below the 2011 national average of $26,600 per borrower, but above the state average of $22,140 for public and private nonprofit four-year institutions.

Kelley said as much as 80 percent of those who later default on student loans are individuals who did not complete their degree.

“Debt can be a useful tool, and an investment in education does have a return,” he said. “It may be, at times, better to acquire a little debt in order to graduate earlier and to enter the workforce. But if you don't complete, then you're burdened with the debt and you don't have that return.”

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Kelley said he was surprised to learn that students who work in jobs unrelated to their campus or future career are less likely to complete their degrees. As a result, the report recommends boosting work-study options that could help students offset costs while solidifying their connection to campus.

For instance, the University of Texas-Pan American emphasizes hiring students for hourly positions rather than looking off campus for employees.

The UT system is still creating an evaluation mechanism for competency-based learning credits that would allow students to finish faster, Kelley said. The initiative could include giving credits for “massive open online courses,” or MOOCs. The UT system recently joined a nonprofit edX partnership to create such online courses.

“If we can find a good way to evaluate whether or not someone's mastered that particular subject (in a MOOC), then it really opens up the doors to a student being able to get through in a much shorter period of time and in a way that's much more agreeable to his or her schedule,” he said.